Vincent Kompany says he did not expect to lead Burnley to promotion in first season

LONDON – Burnley manager Vincent Kompany said he did not expect to lead the Lancashire club to promotion to the Premier League in his first season in charge, but having achieved that return to the top tier, he said his side are now aiming for more.

Burnley secured automatic promotion to the Premier League with seven games to spare after Friday’s 2-1 victory at Middlesbrough ensured Kompany’s side will finish in the second-tier Championship’s top two.

A 66th-minute Connor Roberts strike guided Burnley to the win, after Ashley Barnes’ first-half goal was cancelled out by a Chuba Akpom penalty.

“From the beginning of the season, a lot of people wrote us off. No one said we’d be up there,” Roberts told Sky Sports.

“We’ve shown them and hopefully going into next season we can maintain good performance levels and who knows what can happen.”

The Clarets make their return to the top flight after one season away, having been relegated on the final day of the 2021-22 campaign in which they finished third from bottom.

Nearly £70 million (S$116 million) worth of players departed as Nick Pope, Dwight McNeil, Nathan Collins and Maxwel Cornet were snapped up by Premier League clubs, while two pillars of the club’s stay in the top flight, Ben Mee and James Tarkowski, left on free transfers.

Kompany, appointed in June 2022, said he had not dreamt of this outcome.

“It’s Easter, there are seven games to go and we are already celebrating,” he told Sky Sports. “We didn’t expect this. We wanted to experience it one day, but we had a different timing on it. Quicker is better sometimes.

“Days like today happen more than you think. We found a way. It was not easy at all. But somehow this season we also ended up on the good end of the game.

“There is a belief in the team, and it is a team that can still improve and that is the exciting part. They’re like kids. They’re celebrating like kids and that’s fun to see.”

Promotion can be worth over £300 million over five seasons, if a club survive their first season in the Premier League – according to last year’s Deloitte Annual Review of Football Finance.

Club chairman Alan Pace said the promotion came as a “complete surprise”.

“Vincent and I spoke during the summer and talked about it at great length. We gave ourselves two to three years... What you’re seeing is a lot of magic coming together,” Pace added.

Fourth-placed Boro, who are also chasing promotion, have also had an impressive turnaround since former Manchester United midfielder Michael Carrick took over in October.

He has a winning percentage of 64 per cent over 25 games.

The 41-year-old told Sky Sports: “Congratulations to Burnley. They’ve had a fantastic season and deserve to be top and go up. We will take motivation from that... That’s where we want to be and where we want to get to.”

Burnley need 11 points from their last seven games to win the Championship ahead of second-placed Sheffield United, while 13 points will see them become the first Championship team to rack up more than 100 points since Leicester City in 2013-14. REUTERS, AFP